Wine with Leslie: The top wines and cocktails I tried in 2023

Let’s finish 2023 with a cocktail from Oisín Davis’s Irish Kitchen Cocktails

With just days left in 2023 I thought I would mention some of my 2023 highlights. There are too many great wines to mention but perhaps the tastiest was in early December with a couple of my fellow wine writers, a 1999 Château D’Ampuis Côte Rôtie which tasted ten years younger and had gorgeous layers of lush black fruits and an unexpected lightness of touch.

I was given the wine by Julie Cullen of Jus De Vine Portmarnock in part payment for a food and wine ~evening I led in their beautiful shop around eight years ago. Jus de Vine have several vintages in stock, Julie tells me, with prices starting at €100.

Other highlights included a family holiday in Austria where I spent a day cycling through the Wachau and drank many a Grüner Veltliner and Blaufränkisch. I also tasted excellent Blaufränkisch (aka Franken) on a visit to Czechia, a developing wine country whose wines deserve a better presence on our shelves. Similarly I would like to see more from Türkiye, Moldova and Poland, all wines I found tasty examples of this year.

On TV a highlight was “Drops of God” on Apple TV, a beautifully made and hugely enjoyable drama about a young woman who inherits a multi-million Euro wine cellar from her estranged father, the catch is that she has to compete for it against her father’s adopted son who knows far more about wine.

Let’s finish 2023 with a cocktail from Oisín Davis’s “Irish Kitchen Cocktails”, another of my books of the year.

Irish Cream Espresso Martini

To a blender add 5 ice cubes, 35ml Five Farms Cream Liqueur, 15ml Crème de Cacao, 100ml strong coffee, chilled. Blitz and pour into a chilled Martini glass. (For extra coffee flavour use half cream liqueur and half Tia Maria - my suggestion!)

Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Terrassen, Austria. €21.95

Matsons: 1601; Next Door Clonakilty; No. 21 Midleton; Jus de Vine; theallotment.ie

I visited the Domäne Wachau Co-Op on my trip to Austria this year and have found myself drinking a number of bottles since. Aromas of white pepper, apples, pear with tropical fruit notes and a saline spicy and characterful dry finish. Ferdinand Mayr Grüner is also recommended (JJ O’Driscolls)

Bulli Sampagnino, Rosé Frizzante, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.  €17.99

MacCurtain; Fallon & Byrne; Lennox Grocer; Sheridans; Green Man

From Piacenza between Parma and Milan where sparkling wine is the speciality - this producer is one of the most renowned. Floral red fruit aromas, bright cherry fruits mingle tangy citrus acidity, bone dry with cherry skins on the finish. Also watch in MacCurtain and others above for Bollamatta Spumante (€30).

António Lopes-Ribeiro Vinho Tinto, Portugal, €18.95

Ardkeen Stores; Taste Castletownbere; Olive Branch Clonakilty.

This is a light refreshing organic red to help lift any jaded palates that have been over-indulging in recent days. Made from the normally intense Vinhão grape this has been lightened with the addition of some Loureiro. Tangy, zippy and fresh tasting this bursts with dark cherry fruits, crunchy blackberries, and has pleasing balancing acidity and some structure.

Beer of the Week: Hopfully Brewing Freefall IPA, 5.3% ABV, 440ml - €3.95

Stockists: Bradleys; Abbot Ale House; Craft Central; McHughs

It’s tough to keep up with Waterford-based Hopfully Brewing as they have new beers every time I look. Freefall’s is a limited edition and was designed by Ashwin Chacko (@whackochacko) of Illustrators Ireland.

Made with Citra, Simcoe, Chinook and Centennial hops and a selection of lighter malts pours a hazy pale gold with a fluffy head, strong citrus aromas (grapefruit, tangerine), more grapefruit on the palate with added cream, pine resin and herbal notes and a properly bitter finish.